Children and Dolls

Started off the morning with breakfast and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. "Daniel Goes to School" for the first time. He thinks he needs to bring toys from home, but it turns out there's plenty of things there for him to do. "Daniel Goes to the Doctor" for his first checkup. He's worried until his mother draws pictures to show him the waiting room and what Doctor Anna will do when he gets there.

Put on Go West after the cartoon ended. I go further into the Marx Brothers' only attempt at a comic western at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.

Go West (1940)

Spent the rest of the morning dressing the dolls for September and back to school. Samantha wears her 2015 "BeForever" pink Swiss-dotted meet outfit and black strap shoes. Kit is in her original blue School Outfit with the jumper. Molly gets Kit's pink School Suit with the pink skirt and cute flowered blouse (which is, frankly, too pink for Kit). Whitney feels super-chic in her "Sweet Memories" purple and lavender checked poodle skirt and turquoise scarf. Felicity will take tea in her yellow Tea Lesson Gown. Jessa's dressed for after Catholic school in a pink, blue, and yellow tie-dye shirt and jean shorts. Ariel wears the pale blue Swiss lace mini-dress and crocheted vest she came in. Josefina is in her orange and red Summer Dress (her boots fell apart last fall - she's wearing her regular soft boots). Barbara Jean returns to Cherry Hill High East in a pink minidress with gold threads and pink stockings. 

Switched to National Lampoon's Animal House during lunch and while finishing the dolls. Delta Tau Chi is the worst, least-orderly fraternity house at Faber College in 1962...but it's also the one that has the most fun. It's where misfits like Daniel "D-Day" Simpson Day (Bruce McGill), Eric "Otter" Stratton (Tim Matheson),  and especially fun-loving perpetual student John "Bluto" Blutarsky (John Belushi) hold wild toga parties and inadvertently take down horses. Dean Vernon Wormer (John Vernon) is less than pleased with all this tomfoolery, especially when his wife (Verna Bloom) seduces one of the guys at the toga party. The members of Delta will have to fight for their right to party...and prove that even misfits have a place on a college campus. 

Raunchy college caper gets points for treating its misfits with mild respect, for its killer classic rock soundtrack (you'll never hear "Shout!" in the same way again), and for being one of the few college movies to actually show its students in a classroom. There's probably a poster of Bluto in at least one dorm room in every college across the country. Highly recommended for real college kids, adult classic rock fans, and those who don't mind their comedy coming with a lot of scatological humor.

Soon as the Delta fraternity was invading the college homecoming parade, I was off to Thomas Sharp Elementary. We had a lot more kids today, now that they're more settled in. In fact, there were at least 20 younger kids or more. They were really rowdy in the bathrooms, especially the boys. Once again, thank heavens we were able to take them outside and let them run all that energy off. The weather was perfect, sunny, windy, cool but not too much. I did have trouble getting them off the swings. There's only two, and many of them really do enjoy it. Other than that, they were pretty happy. 

Went straight into writing Maplepunzel when I got home. Maple is abandoned in the middle of a gray, soundless swamp. The mud is thick and smelly, the trees lifeless black hulks. Even the animals are fearful and avoid her. Maple's not happy when she sees the disaster that Pavla wrought on her face and hair. Her cheeks have scarred; her chopped up orange hair sticks out in all directions. Foley the bunny and Eugenia the songbird finally leads Maple to Scott. Scott tells Maple that Pavla intends to marry the blinded Victor. Maple's furious and mimes what she intends to do to Pavla when she can get her hands on her. Scott tells Eugenia to lead them to Wennaria Castle, but the bird takes them to a hovel in the middle of the swamp instead...

Had dinner while watching Match Game PM. The most notable episode here was from 1976 and featured Debralee Scott and Bill Anderson. This was the second time on a nighttime episode where the contestant struck out completely in the Audience Match. Rather than just letting her go, they let her answer a Head-to-Head question, a $100 per panelist. She went home with $600 dollars and a smile on her face.

Finished the night with another western musical. Girl Crazy was the last musical featuring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Unlike most Broadway adaptations of the time, this one does use the majority of the full score. It even includes "Bronco Busters," a chorus number cut from the release and Mickey Rooney's solo verbal comedy routine. Judy and Mickey really have fun with "Could You Use Me?" and Judy has a heartbreaking and sublime "But Not for Me."